


The Travellers

by orphan_account



Category: American Horror Story, Carol (2015), Chicago Fire, Glee, Lost Girl, The 100 (TV), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith, Xena: Warrior Princess, carol - Fandom
Genre: Canon Lesbian Relationship, Commander Lexa, F/F, Funny, Multiple Crossovers, Protective Lexa, Rough Sex, Time Travelling Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-06-09 12:24:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6907150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After discovering in Valhalla, Heroes Paradise, that the creators in the realm above are the ones who are killing them off one by one. The dead lesbian squad must find a way back to their worlds so they can return to their soulmates. It will fall down to Tamsin, Commander Lexa, Xena the Warrior Princess and Leslie Shay of Ambulance 61 to travel through the portal and hop through the universes of the living lesbians to find a bridge to the world of the creators so they can settle this once and for all. Luckily for them, they'll be some helping (and sometimes wandering) hands along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Valhalla/New York, 1950.

There was circles of Valhalla that overlapped one another, homes for all of those worthy of such paradise in death, there was the order of the valiant and the great hall where the self-sacrificers drank in absolute joy with their brethren. Then there was this place, the highest upon Asgard where the women who loved and died for it drank and rested their weary bones beneath the shine of the magnificent worlds that had casted them out, although the worlds turned away and put aside their guilty stares, ashamed and repulsed as they were by the stench of their forgotten children.

Deep in the veins and vessels of their newly-found shared home, there was a bar where the mead never ran dry and silence was so overwhelming one could hear the absolute echo of the ghosts that followed them to this realm. It was in this bar Lexa found herself most of the time, no one bothered her down here or asked fruitless questions that she didn't care for. No one except that damn Valkyrie.

"You came." Tamsin saddled up beside the Commander at the bar and swung her legs around on the stool. "Have to say - I didn't think you had it in you, Heda." she leaned in and whispered, tapping the counter for a double-anything straight without ice.

"You know nothing, dark Fae." Lexa stared ahead angrily and gulped back her cup, finally, with her eyes wincing at the bitter taste, she pushed it forward for more and the bar-keep obliged them both, topping her up to the very rim.

"It seems to me like you're ready for the truth." Tamsin played with the straw in her glass and looked around for anyone who might be listening in. There was a silence between them, a shared dislike, it had drove their small interactions past the terrain of their resistance to immerse themselves in this paradise and that alone was enough to make them allies. "Oh come on," Tamsin finally scoffed and set her drink down. "I know you want out of here, you barely speak to your own people let alone any of the others." she dropped her voice into a whisper.

"My own people?" Lexa raised a brow and set her jaw. "My only ally in this god-forsaken world is Anya and she is at peace here, her fight is over and so is mine, I should be thankful."

"Yet here you are."

"Here I am." Lexa took a deep gulp of her drink. "Perhaps Hell would have been better."

"Been there, done that, I'd only rate it two stars." Tamsin sighed and smoothed down her leather jacket. "What if I told you I have a plan?"

"I would tell you your efforts are wasted, we are the dead and here we are left to live with our ghosts for eternity. These things are a shared truth between all of our many different worlds."

"Death is kind of my thing." she wrinkled her nose and lowered her voice into that sardonic tone. "I'm a Valkyrie, Lexa. I was born in this world and I've travelled to nearly all of the others to collect the souls of their worthy. I have a plan but I can't do it alone and if you ever want to see your little girlfriend again we have to go soon."

Lexa mused on the words and rubbed her brow. These things were fruitless and that truth settled within her gut beyond any doubt, yet there she sat, rubbing her brow and chewing on Tamsin's words unable to swallow them away. "You must have cared very deeply for the succubus people talk so fondly of." Lexa eyed her bitterly and sighed.

"Sure, I loved her." Tamsin acquiesced and swallowed the taste of Bo's name, she leaned in across the bar until they were inches apart and the desperation inside of her was so palpable that Lexa saw it lap up behind her eyes like the shore. "My story with Bo is finished. There's only one girl in all of creation that I love enough to tear apart the fabric of reality and believe me, it ain't Bo Dennis."

"Then who?"

"None of your business." Tamsin hissed and gritted her teeth and her voice gave her away if only for a second. "That's who, grounder."

"Then speak true and tell me this plan of yours." Lexa sat up a little taller.

"All of these worlds overlap one another like a web of realities, right now, we're at the centre where all the edges blur together but there's no bridge back to our universes. The Valkyries are able to shift across the worlds without a physical link—"

"But since you're dead you can't travel the worlds." Lexa rolled her hand and hurried her to the point.

"Which means we need plan B… there is a realm above our own that belongs to the creators, they write our reality, every person you ever met, every friend you ever lost, it was written. I don't know why or how, but they've been killing all of us and it's sending ripples across all the worlds. I think - if we all come together, we might be able to win this war." Tamsin explained herself and waited on baited breath whilst Lexa swirled the last of her drink.

"Enthralling, truly, but how are we to raise a resistance against the gods and no less march to the fight when we are marooned here?" she glared at the Valkyrie.

"Someone out there wants us to go back to our universes, Lexa, a portal was opened a few days ago. I don't know how long it will stay open but I think they're giving us a bridge out of this place. If this works, maybe you get to go home to Clarke and if it doesn't, at least you tried." Tamsin stood from her barstool and waited impatiently.

"We have a bridge but we are still without an army, I'm sorry, but—"

"Commander," a voice called from across the bar and drew their attention. The woman was hooded, the shapeless garment hid her face but her height and build was threatening, she walked tall and though she was dead anyway Lexa still reached for her dagger as a muscle memory to the threat.

"Who goes there." Lexa span off the chair and found her stance with her dagger clenched in her fist.

The woman pulled off her cloak and shook her raven hair, she was dressed in a way that reminded Lexa of home though her armour was not one she recognised nor her weapon. The warrior was sinewed and battle scarred, sections of leather and chainmail hung just above her knees and formed a skirt and a circular disc, a weapon of sorts Lexa was sure, hung at her waist within grasping reach.

"Xena the Warrior Princess." she smiled proudly and stood tall.

"Princess, I don't believe I know of the land you reign over—"

"Seriously raccoon?" Tamsin rolled her eyes. "The post-apocalyptic universe sucks." she mumbled to herself.

"I am Heda Leksa kom Trikru." Lexa ignored the vitriol from the Valkyrie and nodded at the other warrior.

"Between the three of us I'd say we have an army right here." Xena looked between them both, "We don't have much time before the portal closes, it's now or never."

Lexa nodded and mused on these things, "Then it is decided."

"Commander of the coalition, the literal angel of death, Xena the frickin' Warrior Princess and wait for it… Leslie Shay in the house!" the paramedic hooted and hollered her own name as she stepped through the door of the bar, winding her fist above her head. "Who's ready to get the hell out of here, am I right?" she eyed the women and placed the book on the bar top.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tamsin soured and stared off to the ceiling to rub her head. "Leslie the only reason you're in Valhalla is because—"

"Sub-section thirty-eight, paragraph nine. I know." Leslie nodded and crossed her arms, "Emergency services personnel killed in the line of duty. Booyah." she clenched her fist into the air.

"This woman is a brave healer?" Lexa looked off at Tamsin curiously.

"Barely." the Valkyrie sniffed.

"Then she has to come with us, we need a doctor." Xena nodded in agreement with Lexa.

"Everyone knows the rules, Tamsin. For every brunette lesbian the laws of relativity state there must be an equal amount of blonde lesbians." she pointed out, flicking through the book. "Now if you could just put that pretty little mouth of yours to use and get us the hell out of here…"

"Easy, Shay." Tamsin warned her and glared. None the less she obliged and turned to the page that awoke the portal. It was old norse, the kind with harsh vowels and blood behind it, if there was one thing she missed from the first crusades it was the way the language sent a tingle down her spine.

She chanted the words and with it the very fabric of reality began to quiver, like the threads of a tapestry that moved against one another in a blinding light that was solid enough to touch and feel. Lexa rooted her stance and gritted her teeth, her stomach trembled and she felt the very core of chest begin to melt away, Xena grabbed her arm and in turn, Shay grabbed hers and finally they all pulled at Tamsin's jacket until the circle was complete and a blinding, all consuming light shot from the pages of the book and consumed them and itself. Until once again, the bar was silent as it had always been.

 

* * *

 

The blustery winds of another New York winter swept through the streets below the apartment, it was cold and unforgiving but somehow none of it mattered because they were in here and well, that was out there. Therese fretted between a colour chart that consisted of a pastel shade of salmon and a off white hue of pearl against the wall that ran through the sitting room and kitchen that needed a new lease of life, the television set hummed and off-set the peaceful quietness that sprawled between them.

Carol sat with her feet curled beneath herself on the sofa, pushing the frames of her glasses up her nose as she penned a small letter for her daughter, just a few words, small things about her days in the city and the new television set they'd purchased. Her blonde hair was coiffed and her manicured nails held the pen to her mouth as she chewed nervously and Therese watched her do all of these things in that way that was so typically, so wonderfully her.

Suddenly, the room shook violently and the light fixture swung from end-to-end. There was a series of heavy thuds, like the sound of suitcases being dropped against the floor in anticipation of a long awaited embrace, at least that's what Therese thought it sounded like... though it came from their cloak room.

"That will be them?" she looked up at Carol.

"I expect so." Carol smiled and put down her papers, she rose from her chair and lit the cigarette in her mouth on her way to the hallway. Therese followed behind her, arms wrapped around herself, nervous and curious all at the same time of these expected-unexpected guests.

Carol opened the closet door and there beneath their winter coats in a tangled pile were their guests, huffing for air and spluttering their lungs out.

"That's travelling between realities through a portal girls, cheap and dirty." Tamsin climbed from her knees and pulled the others out.

"I don't feel so great." Leslie just about crawled out of the closet and collapsed against the mahogany floor of the hallway.

"Healer ste odon." Lexa growled and checked the girl's pulse though it didn't make much sense given their unique circumstances, to her surprise, their was a flutter of a heartbeat though it wasn't enough to distract her from the two strangers in front of them.

"English, Lexa." Tamsin eyed her and grabbed the hand that made a smooth attempt for her sword. "Easy now, these are friends." she leaned in and whispered, patting the commander's shoulder.

"Take your lover to our bed to rest it off," Carol said gently with her refined soft voice and sucked at her cigarette, breathing a cloud of smoke. "Therese will put on a pot of coffee." she turned and lead them to the sitting room.

"She's not my lover." Tamsin scowled at the faces above her as she scooped the other blonde over her shoulder. "Come on guys, laws of relativity." she shook her head.

"One blonde to one brunette, or at least I am told." Therese agreed and guided them down the hallway.

 

* * *

 

"You throw the chakram and wherever you are it finds your hand again." Xena showed off the craftsmanship of her weapon and handed it to the commander for her to inspect, running her calloused thumbs over the sharpened off edge.

"To whose heart do you wish to return back for?" Lexa handed her back the weapon as the others poured themselves drinks in the kitchen and they were left to sit uncomfortably on the chaise lounge and talk of things only true warriors could talk of.

"A girl."

"It would seem our many worlds are built around special girls." the commander smiled knowingly.

"Yeah… what girls they are." Xena laughed and sheathed her chakram. "And you Heda, you wish to return for a girl?"

"The one who commands death itself." she shrugged off the irony and sat back in the chair. "So strange to think all of these worlds live alongside one another," she shook her head and pointed at the television set. "To think, a talking box." she laughed and Xena joined in until their jaws began to ache.

"What world are we in, Tamsin?" Xena called to the tall blonde as she talked amongst the other couple.

"New York, 1958." Tamsin replied.

"Had I of known how many of you there were I would have put together a shrimp platter." Carol fussed and crossed her legs on the sofa, puffing away on her cigarette.

"So you knew we were coming?" Lexa looked at her curiously.

"Oh, we were expecting you." Therese squeezed Carol's hand and sat beside her on the arm of the chair. "We received a telegram that you were coming to help, Tamsin explained the rest. I don't know much about these… worlds." Therese sighed and tried to wrap her head around these truths but the impossibility of it still clung to her mind. "But we can take you somewhere where you can find the next portal before the correctors find you."

"The correctors?" Xena sipped at the black broth in front of her and winced at its bitter taste.

Tamsin stared at them both and scratched her head and wondered how it was that for once she was the leader, the one who knew the answers, she knew these worlds well and the intricate ways in which they worked and the knowledge was a burden. If only that damn succubus was here to be the hero, she thought.

"You're a warrior from Mount Olympus, chuckles the clown over there is from a post-apocalyptic hell-hole." Tamsin said tersely as she gestured towards the stoic faced commander, taking an exasperated breath. "And Leslie Shay is Leslie Shay. None of us are supposed to be here and each world has watchmen to make sure this exact kind of thing **doesn't happen.**  If they catch a whiff of us, forget about going back to Valhalla, they will destroy us completely."

"So not only did we all die the first time but we might die again?" Leslie clutched her sore head at the door before Carol moved the pillows to make room for her on the sofa.

"Ding, ding! We have a winner! Ten points to that bitch." Tamsin pointed at the paramedic.

"Why this world? I've read the book… you guys get a happy ending." Leslie looked between Carol and Therese, gladly accepting the cold compress Therese offered for her head. "Why would you risk getting on the bad side of these watchmen?"

"My dear, a happy ending for our kind is just a story that hasn't finished yet and we're all tired of it." Carol tapped the end of her cigarette into the ashtray, "Over the last few months I've taken ill, just a harmless infection of the lungs they tell me but I am not a fool, if we don't win the war against the creators then I am certain I will be the next to go."

"Don't talk like that, Carol." Therese rubbed her arm and cupped her cheek.

"Word of advice from the future, those aren't doing you any favours." Leslie grabbed the lit cigarette from Carol's hand and stubbed it out in the ashtray.

"I can see why you're not keen on this one, Tamsin." Carol swallowed and crossed her arms. "None the less, we have clothes you can all use to disguise yourself in our world and we will gladly take you to your next destination."

"And where is that?" Lexa eyed her.

"Remember how I said some of the worlds overlap one another?" Tamsin took a sip of the black coffee and stretched out her legs. "We're taking a little trip to the City of Angels, ladies."

"Oh how I do love Los Angeles." Carol smiled softly and ran her fingers through her coiffed hair.

Xena leaned back into the seat and folded her leg over the other, "And what business do we have with these angels?"

"With the angels? None. But, I do know an old demon who might be able to help us." Tamsin scratched the back of her neck and suddenly felt a little nervous. It had been a long time since she'd visited that old demon, then again time is not a commodity for those who were eternal to begin with. The concept seemed so laughable now, so painful, that she had lived through all of time and now it was her biggest enemy. Though she was sure the Countess wouldn't empathize with such human sentiments.

"I'll call ahead," Carol lifted the receiver off the phone and ran her finger around the dialler, there was a pause, it was brief and the room lulled into a silence as she spoke on the phone. "Hello?" she said softly into the receiver. "Is this the Hotel Cortez? Oh good," she swallowed. "I'd like to make a reservation."

  
  
  



	2. The Hotel Cortez, Part I

Deep in the vessels of the hotel—through the stench and shadows where the sentinels of death lurked in their rooms like keepers of their own prison; the sound of music and laughter seeped from underneath the door of the grandest penthouse suite in the Hotel Cortez and the party roared on as it did every night. Like a demon in stilettos with coiffed platinum hair and lips red enough to lure a man to certain death, she simply sat at the bar and existed with the entirety of the universe converging on her.

  
"Elizabeth," the men called in turn and waved her over; begging and pleading for a dance, sometimes her company, but always without fail they called for her and she never tired of the sound of being the centre of attention.

  
"Elizabeth won't you dance?" one poor soul—handsome as he was—finally plucked up the courage and offered her a cigarette. He was thirty or maybe forty, it was hard to discertain with such a timelessly rugged face. He sat opposite her and smoothed down his slicked back hair and placed his hat down at the parlour bar though he would no doubt not be staying for long.

  
"Oh Calvin," Elizabeth frowned with regret, "I'm expecting company tonight but I must have you for dinner next time you're in town." her light voice lured him closer and her fingers smoothed down the lapel of his overcoat.

  
"You mean over for dinner?" he corrected her with a little wry smile.

  
"Something like that." she whispered softly with her cigarette between her fingers.

  
The doors opened and though nobody else turned to register the visitors; they were all the Countess could see and smell, the taste of one in particular amongst them dripped down the back of her throat like an old memory and her eyes grew wider in surprise.

  
"Tamsin,"

  
Her throat tightened to a point where it hurt to breathe, it was a rare pain. One that only came from the bitter taste of letting what little was left of her heart wander too far from what was within her grasps.

  
"Everybody out!"

  
Suddenly the jazz music stopped playing and the talk of the room devolved into silence. Slowly, they all trickled out one by one until all that was left were her and the women in front of her.

  
"Good to see you too, Liz." Tamsin strolled into the room and jumped over the back of the sofa, legs stretched out against the length of it.

  
With an acquired restraint that rocked her to the very core, she swallowed back the worst of herself and steadied her hand against the bar. The others stood in the center of the room melting under the uncomfortable tension and so she ignored the Valkyrie stretched out upon her Danish studio couch and turned her gaze to her guests.

  
"Carol, Therese, how rude of me." she forced a smile and the couple stepped forward and exchanged little cheek kisses. "I've heard so very much about you... I was most intrigued to hear of your reservation at the Cortez." she clasped Carol's hands.

  
"We've heard a lot about you too." Therese piped up nervously.

  
"All good I hope." the Countess laughed softly.

  
"You certainly took care of the ones who would have anything bad to say." Tamsin chuckled and picked up a full glass of her best Johnnie Walker Blue Label from the table that had been vacated.

  
Elizabeth clasped her hands and looked at Tamsin for just a moment, fleeting as it was, her eyes were empty black voids and it unsettled the Valkyrie. "I see you brought other friends?" she eyed the two quiet brunettes who finally took off their shapeless overcoats to reveal their striking armour.

  
"Apparently from overseas," Elizabeth ran her tongue over teeth and took a step closer. "What is your name?"

  
"Commander Lexa." she tightened her jaw and felt a chill run down her spine as the afflicted beauty stood inches from her.

  
"You have a jawline for weeks, Commander." she smiled and ran her clawed finger down the side of it.

  
"My heart belongs to another."

  
"Pity." the Countess tutted.

  
Leslie muscled in between the two warriors until she was stood in front of Elizabeth. "Hey, just so you know—I am single and if you want to get a drink when we're finished saving the world, I have a lot of free time and—"

  
"Shut up, Leslie." Tamsin huffed and knocked back another gulp of whiskey. "Enough with the pleasantries, you know why we're here."

  
"It's bad form to talk business at a party, Tamsin. You of all people should know that."

  
She breezed through the room with the train of her dress flowing behind her until she reached the record player on her glass bureau table beneath the small staircase that lead to her grand bed. Once more, the sound of jazz music blared like background music as they all huddled round and sat on the circular sofa.

  
"We've come about the portal." Carol put an end to this back and forth.

  
"I was under no illusion otherwise," Elizabeth tapped the glass top. "It's no surprise really, the Hotel Cortez is home to a great many wonders." she smiled.

  
"You can say that again." Leslie murmured, absolutely enthralled with the beauty in front of her.

  
"So very strange," Elizabeth whispered under her breath and took in another deep whiff of the room. "Now Tamsin, I was hoping you had brought one of those delicious warriors as a party favour and then I thought maybe you brought the eager pretty one for me to drain dry, but it would seem the only ones alive in this room are dear Carol and Therese here…" she pointed to the couple. "Which begs the question, how did four dead lesbians escape the underworld and find themselves in my hotel—and what do they want with a portal to another universe?"

  
"Nothing gets by you does it, Princess?" Xena rolled her eyes.

  
"Countess will suffice just fine." Elizabeth smiled and sat down, smoothing down the satin of her gown.

  
"Determination and finesse. As for your second question, we're trying to reach the overworld." Tamsin put down her glass.

  
"Impossible," the Countess laughed softly and these things genuinely amused her. She turned to Carol, finally swallowing her titters. "You helped these, little gypsies, travel through time and space?"

Carol breathed a puff of smoke and Lexa coughed from the smell of it. "Why Elizabeth, I think you're most certainly right." her mouth widened into a little smile.

  
"Will you help us or not? Branwada." Lexa bared her teeth and rose from the sofa, she pulled out her dagger but the Countess was quicker with unnatural speed that unhinged the warrior. Her fingers gently clasped around the Commander's hand and guided her knife back into its sheath.

  
"I wouldn't do that again." she offered a shallow smile and it was a warning.

  
"She's not human, Lexa. She feeds off human blood to sustain her immortality… keep your distance." Tamsin warned her but the Commander didn't move.

  
"Pity," Elizabeth frowned and sat back down. "I bet you taste divine Commander… all that rage and war running through your veins. Delicious" she almost salivated. "Or at least you would have if you were still alive." her face soured a little.

  
"Will you help us, Elizabeth?" Carol said softly though she sat with an unwavering staunchness about her. "My contact lead me to believe you were a most reasonable woman."

  
"I am." she rolled her shoulders and sat down, "And I will help… for a price." she turned to Tamsin and her lips widened into a little smile.

  
"What do you want?" Lexa pried.

  
"Me." Tamsin crossed her legs and swallowed, "I'm not human… my blood is like ambrosia to her."

  
"But you're dead?" Therese piped in as if these things had been forgotten.

  
"In my experience a dead Valkyrie is much preferred to an alive one." Elizabeth gritted her teeth and her grip tightened around her glass.

  
"You break my heart." Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Fine, you have yourself a deal. Let us use your portal and you can feed off me."

  
"In that case, you'll need to talk to the person who designed this hotel." she gestured around at the art deco fixings and lights.

  
"And whom might that be?" Xena gnashed her teeth a little.

  
"If you'd all like to follow me, allow me to take you to the man of the house." she shallowly smiled and lead them towards the door, "James will be pleased to have company for dinner."

  
They all followed her out of the room and Leslie hung around at the back. They walked down the corridor and eventually she matched her pace just right so her and Tamsin were towards the back of the group, wandering down corridors that ached and moaned with suffering.

"It seems like you guys have some unfinished stuff between you and I just wanted to come and talk to you face to face and see if you'd have a problem with me asking that girl out for like, a seafood dinner maybe?" she leaned in a whispered to the Valkyrie.

  
"Believe me, things between Elizabeth and I were finished years ago… but as much as I hate to say it champ, you're exactly her type when it comes to dinner." Tamsin squeezed her shoulder.  
"She has a type?"

  
"Oh sure she does," Tamsin smirked. "O negative, mainly."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter: The Countess will see you now...


End file.
